Let me open with a brief recall of my summer adventure. End of June move a swarm into a box right before I leave for a month. When I get back (late July) queen is not doing so well -- spotty brood, colony dwindling. After 2 failed attempts to requeen failed, with the help of a local beek I am able to requeen the small colony towards the end of August. The colony is now in a 5 frames nuc.
I looked at it yesterday and 4 of the 5 frames were almost full of either brood or nectar (we are in full goldenrod bloom here). This new queen seems to be doing well, brood was well organized. I removed the empty frame and replaced it with a frame of bees, brood and nectar from my other hive. I am pretty sure I didn't bring the queen along from Hive 1
Now the question is what to do next. I know the odds are against this colony, this late in the season in my geographical area. But I want to try to give them the best chance. As I see it here are my options:
-- Attempt to overwinter them in a nuc. I have heard of local beeks succeeding at that even around here. Get a second nuc box, put it on top of the current one and feed them as much as possible.
-- Move them now into a regular deep box now and hope they will fill that, and maybe even a second box on top with aggressive feeding.
The other hive looked good. Lots of bees, lots of honey, but not a lot of brood (top box only 3 frames had a little in the middle). Almost all frames filled. I know it's normal for the queen to slow down in the fall, but is it normal to be so little this early in the fall? I didn't look at the bottom box. I was just looking for a frame to transfer.
Thanks for your help as usual.
Rosario